Murky
by InvaderProfessorMembrane
Summary: Gaz has just learned that she is moving. She doesn't take very kindly to that fact.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Taking a brief break from my ongoing story to write about something that's currently going on in my life. Changed some of the details, but…**

It had all happened so suddenly, it seemed.

Gaz had been casually sitting on the couch, playing on her GameSlave 2. Her stupid brother, Dib, was next to her, watching some paranormal studies show that was even stupider than he was.

All of a sudden, Gaz heard the jingling of keys and the doorknob turn. That was, well, odd to say the least. Her father was _never_ home that early, and he was the only one who could possibly be at the door.

Professor Membrane walked inside. He dropped a briefcase down and it landed on the floor with a heavy thump.

"Greetings, kids!" he exclaimed happily.

Dib and Gaz responded with half-hearted "hi"s, both too focused on what they were currently doing at that moment.

"I have some rather important news for you," Professor Membrane said.

Gaz wasn't too impressed. He probably wanted to tell them about some cure he found or something. They were used to hearing about their father's brilliant breakthroughs, so much so that it was hardly impressive anymore.

When neither if the kids replied, Professor Membrane cleared his throat. "This is big news," he said, grabbing the remote and muting the TV. He walked over to Gaz and grabbed the video game out of her hand. She growled at the sounds of her character dying, but her father simply placed the game in his coat pocket.

"Come to the kitchen so that I can talk to you kids," he said.

Now Gaz was beginning to feel worried. Professor Membrane usually just said whatever he needed to say to them right where they were sitting, and then run off to the lab. In fact, the only time they'd been called to the kitchen to talk was when they received the news of what happened to their mother…

No. Was something bad happening? Gaz looked at her father with a worried expression. She knew she had to be brave. Whatever happened, she would not cry. She would not let her father think she was weak.

"Our lives will be changing quite dramatically," Professor Membrane said. "…Because we are moving!"

Gaz froze. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see that Dib froze too. "Moving? Where to?" Dib asked.

"The far away land of… France!"

Gaz's eyes widened. "We're moving _WHERE?_ "

"That's right!" Professor Membrane said gleefully. "All the way to France! They want me to do some research over there, and, uh, have offered me a nice sum of money…" he coughed. "Won't this be fun?"

Gaz stared at him like he's just lost his mind. "Fun? _FUN?_ We're moving across the Atlantic Ocean after living in one small city since the day that we were born and you think that we're supposed to enjoy this?"

Dib backed Gaz up on this. "What? Dad! We can't move to France! Zim lives here! We can't leave! Without me, this planet will be destroyed! C'mon, Dad! You're logical! You understand why we can't leave, don't you?"

"For once, he's right," Gaz said. "We can't. We just can't!"

"Now, kids," Professor Membrane said. "This is something that we have to do."

"No we don't!" Gaz yelled. "Just decline the offer! Tell them we can't go!"

"No, Gaz," Professor Membrane said, growing stern. "I can't let this opportunity go to waste. This is literally a once-in-a-lifetime chance. Plus, it'll be an experience for you and Dib."

"We don't want an experience," Dib said back. "We want to stay here! We want to continue to live here and go to school here! If I don't stay here, think of what will happen to this planet!" Dib made a crushing noise with his mouth and clapped his hands together once for emphasis.

"I'm sorry, son," Professor Membrane said. "I've made up my mind. We're moving to France and that is final. You'll just have to get used to it. I know we'll all grow to love it after a while."

Gaz grit her teeth and clenched her fists. She began to feel tears welling up in her eyes. She knew she had to go to her room before her father and her brother saw her cry.

"FINE! You know what, fine!" She began trembling. "Move if you want to, but I'll hate you forever!"

She turned on her heel and marched upstairs, stomping her feet as loud as she could. She felt the tears finally beginning to pour down her face. So much for staying strong no matter what.

She slammed the door to her room and locked it. Her father had _just_ brought up the idea, and she already knew she hated it. She hated it so much! How could her father do this to her? She felt so betrayed in every way.

She buried her face in her pillow and began to cry. She hadn't cried like this in a long time… she had probably never cried like this. When her mom had died, she was too young to understand what was going on. All she remembered was being called into the kitchen, and her father with his face covered in tears…

She gripped the pillow. UGH! She knew that being called into the kitchen would end up with her being very upset, for one reason or another.

She heard a soft knock on the door. "Gaz…?" a voice said. It was her father.

Gaz sat up. "What?" she snapped, trying to disguise her sadness with anger.

"May I come in?"

"No."

Gaz heard her father sigh, but she didn't hear his footsteps walk away from the door. Gaz grumbled something, wiped her eyes, and threw open the door bitterly. "What?" she snapped again.

"Are you alright?" Professor Membrane said, stepping into the room. This upset Gaz even more. She just wanted him to go away.

"Yeah, I'm great," Gaz hissed sarcatically. "What do you think?"

"I don't understand why you're so upset about this," he said.

Gaz glared. "What?! I'm upset because you're taking away everything from me! You're taking away my school, my house, my room…" Gaz stopped. She felt more tears in her eyes and she stopped before any sadness was detectable in her voice. She turned away and walked towards her bed.

Professor Membrane followed her and sat next to her. "I know," he said. It's no doubt it will be hard at first— Gaz, are you crying?"

Gaz was aware of the tears dripping down her face. Oh no. She never cried in front of anyone. She was Gaz. She didn't do that.

"Gaz?"

"NO, OKAY?" she yelled. "I'm not…" her voice cracked, and her shoulders shook.

Professor Membrane looked at her, and he picked her up to try and comfort her, but Gaz squirmed away as if she was in physical pain. "Don't," she said, crawling to the opposite end of the bed.

"Gaz, I think you'd feel better if we just talked about this—"

"JUST GO AWAY!" She screamed at him. She covered herself up in the sheets.

Gaz didn't hear any sound from her father, not even his breathing. She knew he was still there, though. She could feel him weighing down the bed.

 _Just like he's weighing down my life_ , she thought bitterly.

After a while, she heard him leave. Gaz sighed, partly in relief.

Amongst the millions of questions about the current situation, one stood put.

How could she ever forgive her father for what he just took from her?


	2. Chapter 2

Professor Membrane sighed, falling heavily onto his bed. He acted confident, but in reality, he wasn't sure about the move. France was a long way from the US, after all, and… well, he'd miss Membrane Labs, and his house, and the small area they lived in. He'd only moved a few times, and they were only moving from his parents' house, to an apartment, to a small house, to the house he lived in at the moment. He had never really even moved to another _city_.

He stared at the ceiling. Gaz was super upset about this. He wondered how long it would be until she forgave him for this. He thought about what happened that night. Gaz never cried in front of him. The last time he'd seen her cry was, literally, when she was a baby. When she and Dib were toddlers, while Dib would cry over a scraped knee, Gaz hardly flinched when she broke her arm. If an inanimate object hurt Gaz, she would react by throwing it or breaking it… hmm. Maybe _that_ was Gaz's way of crying. Instead of crying, she would be angry.

Professor Membrane sighed loudly and got up. He couldn't sleep, and figured that maybe eating something would make him tired.

He walked down the stairs as quietly as he could. When he reached the kitchen, Gaz was there, very much to his surprise. She turned and looked at him, and he could see that her eyes were shinier than usual. He saw Gaz rub her eyes. Probably wiping away tears.

"Hello," he said quietly. Gaz didn't reply. He sighed and got himself some cereal, the kitchen briefly being illuminated by the light of the refrigerator.

"Why do we have to do this?" Gaz said, sniffling.

Professor Membrane sighed. "Because, Gaz, I'm being offered a job there. It's important that I take it."

"I know _that_ , but… what's wrong with the job you have now?"

"Nothing—"

"Then. Why. Are you. Giving… it… up?" Gaz said through grit teeth.

"I'm not. I'm simply changing the location."

"WHY?!" Gaz boomed. She took her arm and swung it across the table, hitting a glass of milk. It soared through the air, hitting the front of Professor Membrane's pajama shirt and splashing it in his face. He narrowed his eyes, a gesture that he had never done to Gaz. He only narrowed his eyes if he got extremely angry with someone. He saw Gaz's expression change to one of regret.

"D-Dad, I'm… I'm sorry. I didn't mean to…" she looked as if she was going to cry all over again.

Professor Membrane was too angry at the moment to be sympathetic, though. "After you clean up the mess on the table and floor," he said, shaking, "go straight to your room. Also…" he looked around and eyed Gaz's GameSlave 2 on the counter. "I'll be taking this for a while. You need to learn how to behave."

Gaz stood there for a minute, mouth agape. She tried to say something else, but Professor Membrane was already speed-walking out of the kitchen. He ran into the bathroom, washed his face, and changed his shirt, but the anger remained.

When Professor Membrane returned to his bed, he had an even worse time falling asleep than before. He didn't even let Gaz apologize…

He turned over. Well, she shouldn't of splashed milk in his face either! He had a right to be angry with her.

But still. The move was probably harder for her than for him. Gaz tended to internalize her emotions, and because of that they were rather explosive when released. He did a bad job at being the adult in that situation.

He laid there and thought of the differences that awaited them in the future. Professor Membrane was the only one out of the three that spoke French, and this was because he'd studied three years of it in high school. He'd forgotten so much… eugh. The thought of it made him shudder. It wasn't exactly his best class either. Great, so basically none of them spoke the language. And… well, obviously a new place of work. He would name it Membrane Labs 2. Coming up with a new name was much too hard, and he liked it when stuff was named after him, so…

Gaz and Dib's school would be different, too. Luckily, they would be going to a small, American school, so at least they didn't have to learn French just to go to school.

He sighed. Moving. It was a lot of work, especially since there were only three people in the house. He would have to pack all of the stuff in his basement lab In addition to the upper floors, and… his building lab too. He flipped over on his stomach and buried his face in the pillow. He was already exhausted thinking about it.

Suddenly, Professor Membrane heard something. He sat up. It was… whimpering? From Gaz? But Gaz never cried out loud. In the rare occasion that she did cry, it was undetectable.

 _No_ , Professor Membrane thought. _I was stern on her, and she deserved it_.

Still, though. He felt bad for her. She was just a kid, and this was a big change.

He heard a giant sob from Gaz's room, followed by coughing. _She's crying so hard she's coughing_ , Professor Membrane thought. He listened for a while longer, but he didn't hear anything else from Gaz's room, but he got up anyway.

"Gaz?" he whispered. No answer.

He walked quietly down the hall, making sure to avoid the creaky parts of the floor, which he'd memorized perfectly. He slowed down. Huh. He'd lived here for so long, he'd memorized the _floors_.

He carefully opened the door. Gaz was laying on her side, facing away from him.

"Gaz?" he whispered. There was no reply.

"Gaz?" he said again. "I'm very sorry about getting mad, but you shouldn't have done that…"

Again, no reply. When Professor Membrane walked closer, he noticed that Gaz was sleeping, but definitely not very peacefully. She still had tearstains on her face.

Professor Membrane snuck out of the room and back into his own, and he grabbed Gaz's GameSlave. He ran back into Gaz's room and set it down on the bed, near her hands. "I'm sorry, Gaz," he whispered.

"It's okay, dad," he heard Gaz whisper back as he closed the door.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Tomorrow is the day (August 8; so technically later today since it's late haha) I move from the US to Italy! Wish me luck :0**

Dib paced back and forth, not really much happier with this information than Gaz was. Who would stop Zim when he was gone? Everyone else was too stupid to do so! And now that he was moving across an entire ocean, there wasn't a chance that Zim wouldn't take the planet over.

Of course, after the shock set in (which took an entire night), Dib pleaded with his father.

"Dad! You can't do this! The fate of the world rests in my hands! How am I supposed to stop Zim's evil plans if I'm so far away from him?"

Professor Membrane simply shook his head. "Sorry, son. You'll just have to call or video chat your friend. Of course, we'll come and visit—"

"Dad! Zim and I are NOT friends!" Dib stomped his foot to emphasize this. "And how am I supposed to stop Zim through video chat? Try and talk him out of it?" He rested his head on his hands, a frustrated expression on his face.

Professor Membrane sighed. "I wish I could make everyone happy," he said.

"Well, Dad, you can't!" Dib yelled. "The end of the world is sure to come because of this move!"

Professor Membrane couldn't help but chuckle at this statement. "Son, don't be so extreme. Just because we're moving overseas doesn't mean the world is ending."

Dib let out an infuriated yell. "You don't _get it_ ," he said through grit teeth.

Before Professor Membrane could reply, Dib stomped up the stairs. He slammed the door to his room so hard that the entire upper floor shook. And then, just like his sister, he buried his face into his pillow and began to sob. Unlike Gaz, though, he couldn't really keep himself quiet while he cried.

A few moments later, he heard the doorknob jiggle. He sat up and wiped his face, expecting his father. Needless to say, he was very surprised to see his younger sister standing at the doorway.

"Hey," Gaz said quietly. Her voice was lacking the usual aggression it held when she spoke to him.

Dib wanted to demand what it was that Gaz wanted from him, but Gaz was actually being _nice_ to him. This was definitely a first. So instead, he replied, "Hey."

Gaz must've been able to tell that he was crying because she looked down and said, "It's okay. I cried too."

" _You_? _You_ cried?" Dib scoffed. "Yeah, right!"

"I did!" Gaz retorted, but she cringed and cleared her throat. "I mean… yeah, I did. I don't want to go through this stupid move any more than you do."

"I thought you'd handle it better," Dib said with a shrug. "I mean, it's not like you'd miss anyone from Skool, and you don't really worry about the world being ended or anything."

"Dib, when I was born, Mom and Dad took me directly from the hospital to this house."

Dib bit his lip. He'd found out long ago that he and Gaz were not created naturally, but instead elaborate experiments. He'd found the paperwork stuffed in a drawer in his father's lab. When he questioned Professor Membrane about it, he got a lecture

" _You mustn't ever tell Gaz about this_ ," Professor Membrane had said, giving Dib a serious look. " _Or there will be consequences. Understood?_ "

"What?" Gaz asked, breaking Dib out of his trance. "Why are you making a horrified face?"

"No reason. You were saying?"

"I've lived here all my life," Gaz said again. "It's gonna be hard leaving."

Dib nodded. "Yeah, you don't say," he mumbled. His head was beginning to wander. He had a plan.

Gaz left, realizing that she wasn't being listened to anymore. Meanwhile, Dib got out a pen and paper and begun to write. If he couldn't stay here with Zim, he supposed he'd just have to bring Zim with him!

He heard a knock at the door. Thinking it must be Gaz again, he got up and threw open the door.

"Hello, son," his father, who was standing at the door, said.

"Hey, Dad."

"Gaz told me you were crying?"

Dib tapped his foot impatiently. The sooner his father left him alone, the sooner he could start planning. "She must've been hearing things. I'm fine."

Professor Membrane nodded. "Alright, well, I'm here if you need to talk about—"

"Yeah, yeah, thanks, Dad," Dib said, closing the door. Now, back to planning something very clever.

And illegal.

 **A/N: Disclaimer: This is not how I act with my family. I do not yell at them, and Dib and Gaz's behavior is for entertainment purposes only and not based off of my personality.**


End file.
